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136 meet with acceptance, but they are clearly and fully stated, they are progressive, and they are not beclouded with rules and exceptions ad nauseam. From his book we can proceed to a searching analysis of the works of the great composers — a course which all theorists will allow to be the true one for a student of harmony. The practice of analysis is essential to a thorough grasp of musical theory. Even a chorus-singer, in these days of music of doubtful tonality, needs some knowledge of harmony if he would be other than a blunderer. One of our great composers has been heard to remark that fugue is worked out. This may be in a certain sense, but thematic development, which is the raison-cTetre of a fugue, will never die. Tear the counterpoint from Mozart, and where would his music be .'' The fugues of Bacli are not entirely the outcome of a system peculiar to one age or one school, acquired by patient labour only to be discarded by another generation. We must remember, moreover, that the principles of counterpoint are only the means to an end. How- ever the outward form of music may change, a study, deep and patient, of counterpoint, imitation, and fugue, is still the requisite of a great composer. With regard to pianoforte-teaching, we always dread the extinction of musical feeling and expres- sion in young pupils by too long and too constant attention to mere technique. Art cannot exist without facile execution. It must be absolutely perfect in the ideal player, but it takes time. First make the young pupil a lover of music. Cultivate his imagination. Teach him artistic phrasing, and drown not head and heart in a sea of digital exer- cises. Our experience is that a truly scientific system of practice applied to the works of classical composers of itself induces technical proficiency, besides developing taste. To touch upon chorus-singing in conclusion. The hete-no'we of all conductors is false pitch. This can be mastered, but only by strict and constant attention (a) to the pitch itself, and (6) to voice production. Some may be sceptical as to the possibility of teaching vocalisation to large masses of singers, but the writer has tried it with the most encouraging results. Further, he has found that no harm is done to individual voices where a little care is bestowed upon the elements of singing. The aim of a conductor should be to leave his chorus fresh and bright at the end of a two-hours' rehearsal.

T. H. CoLLINSON,

Afns. Bac, Oxoii.

WHILE yet on the threshold of that more distinctively Beethoven period inaugurated with magnificent daring by the Eroica symphony, our attention is drawn not only to those works which foreshadow a coming change of style, but to others which seem to mark a momentary pause in the career of the composer. Among these the Septett stands out prominently, a composition which, partly from the fact of its being essentially retrospective in cliaracter, won from the first the universal pojju- larity it still retains. The Septett represents, like the Haydn-Mozart period which in design and feeling it closely follows, the joyous spring-time of the art, and it is right and proper that its fresh beauty and transparent clearness should continue to exercise their undisputed power of fascination. But it has to be remembered that, unbounded popu- larity notwithstanding, the work does not represent Beethoven's genius in its maturity, that it has no special significance for the history of the art, and, above aU, that universal popularity is a distinction at no time bestowed quickly and promptly on any work of art strikingly in advance of the age that produced it. The main interest connected with the preliminary sketches for the Septett lies in the special attraction to Beethoven of a particular theme, and in the question of proprietorship regarding another on which the variations of the fourth movement are founded. The sketch-books which throw light on these points belong to the year 3798-99, and the rough drafts for the thematic material of the Septett are intermingled with others for the early string quartetts. Op. 18. There is no record of material for the first movement, and the order of the others is, as so often happens with Beethoven, inverted. The sketch-books are, however, known to be incom- plete, and this is only one of many gaps in the continuity of the material placed before us in the published collection. The following passage,

M. Corno. shows that Beethoven at first intended to write a